Some Aspire to Manage - I Have to Ask Why

Diane left and I became both the Branch Software Manager of the Sacramento office as well as the Regional Software Manager for GBS. I was good at and liked computer programming. Managing people is an entirely different skill set. I never thought of and never wanted to manage people, but here I was. As Branch Manager, I now had a staff of three programmers and two installers. Two of the programmers were not too happy about the change. My best programmer, Lori, not to be confused with Laurie, one of my installers, was good friends with Diane. To my surprise she was fine with the change. My two installers were also fine with me as their new manager. It was the guys who were unhappy not the women. Not what I expected. I had no real previous experience. My plan was to try and treat everyone how I would like to be treated.

Mike was the Branch Manager. I officially reported to him as the Branch Software Manager, but I also still reported to Bob the Regional Manager in my Regional Software Manager role. It was a little tricky having 2 bosses. I had to keep straight what branch information was not for Bob's ears and what regional information was not for Mike's to maintain their trust. Mike ran both the sales and technical support (hardware) departments leaving the software stuff to me. In general, everyone in the office got along.

An issue I inherited was my programmers were often less than professional with one of my software installers. The two installers were Laurie and Cathy. The programmers loved Cathy and complained about Laurie. Cathy was indeed one of the best installers in the entire company. Compared to Cathy, Laurie did look weak. Bob had mentioned to me that he had heard complaints about Laurie from some of the staff. He asked me for my opinion of her.

I spent a little time working more closely with Laurie and checking her work and I gave her a little advice. I was not able to find anything to substantiate the negative things being said about her. It seemed to me it was more of a personal nature or maybe it was about something that happened before I came to Sacramento. Laurie was friends with Bob and I think some felt she had her job because of that. I found her reliable. For the most part she completed her assignments just fine. The main problem I saw was she wasn't at Cathy's level. Cathy did her job exceedingly well. She also took the time to do a little extra for the programmers, whereas Laurie was quick to turn problems over to the programmers. She didn't do those extra steps that Cathy did. Cathy also understood the programming side better than Laurie. Laurie worked hard but in the end she was competent but average.

When it came time for Laurie's review I rated her based on my experience with her. What else could I do? I gave her an average review. I pointed out areas where she could improve. I ran it by Bob with a recommendation of an average raise. Bob approved and seemed happy with my assessment. Of course the programmers were upset when they learned about it. A few weeks later I reviewed Cathy. I gave Cathy an excellent review and asked Bob to give her a large raise. Bob questioned me on it, wanting to know why there was such a difference. He was resistant. I explained that Cathy was well worth it and that we would risk losing her if we didn't treat her right. I then told him how some of the staff already think Laurie is getting favored treatment and that will become a much larger issue if we don't acknowledge Cathy's superior performance in a tangible way. We went back and forth a bit. I kept insisting and Bob gave in. Cathy was talented, personable, and a quick learner. I never felt Cathy was fully appreciated outside the programming group. I actually eventually advised her that she might want to look at other opportunities as there was really nowhere for her to go in the GBS Sacramento office. That was the only time I encouraged someone who worked for me to look for other opportunities, well the only time I did to an employee who was doing a great job.

About a month after I took over, one of my male programmers left for another job. I interviewed a few candidates. One candidate had minimal experience but had taken computer classes at American River College. I had devised a test as part of the interview process and he was the only one who aced it. He wasn't the most qualified on paper but he interviewed well so I hired him.

John, my other male programmer, was a good programmer and had been with the company for awhile. I caught him signing out for a client visit but taking the rest of the day off instead. I found this out when the customer he had signed out for called me. They called me and said they had been calling John and he had yet to return any of their calls. Not realizing that the customer I was speaking with was the same one John had signed out for I halfway put my foot in my mouth before I figured it out. The next day I called John into my office and informed him this was not acceptable. He said he'd worked a lot of overtime this past year and felt the company owed him some time off. I said “That may be true John. I know how things go in this company, but you can't do that without going through me.” I told John next time there could be some serious repercussions. His reply was largely that the company owes him. He failed to even apologize. I firmly reiterated he was not to take time off without letting me or Mike, the Branch Manager, know.

John was not happy. Maybe he had an off the books understanding with Diane that I wasn't aware of so I decided to cut him some slack. He did have a sizable work load and he did good work. I didn't catch him skipping out on work again but he continued taking liberties. Business was slowing down and I knew that could mean layoffs and I might be losing a position in my group. I was also starting to get some questions about John from Bob. I called John in again and let him know how things were, that his actions were being noticed by others and that layoffs could be coming. His reply was “So what”.

John batting at the company picnic softball game

Not long after that Bob called me in to tell me I had to layoff one of my programmers. We talked about all the options and discussed all the candidates. Of course my recently hired programmer seemed to be the logical choice, but I indicated to Bob that if I had to let someone go my choice was going to be John. I was frank with Bob telling him that John is not responding to me, his work is suffering, and at this point I can't trust him. Bob wasn't surprised but he cautioned me that it may not be popular with the rest of the staff as he's liked and is more senior. I replied “He's still my choice plus it will send a good message to the rest of the staff as I'm pretty sure they must be noticing that he is undermining me.” Bob said “Think about it and give me your decision within the next couple of days. I tried to talk with John again the next day but he was clearly not interested in anything I had to say.

I informed Bob that it was John. Bob said I should layoff John that Friday afternoon (the industry standard layoff time). On Friday morning I told John we needed to talk and to come see me before the day was out. Of course John then signed out for a customer for the whole day. I called the customer's office leaving a message for John to call me and that I needed to see him before the end of the day. He neither called nor returned to the office. When I got in Monday morning our Branch Manager, Mike, came to see me first thing. He told me he let John go when he came in before John could sign out for another customer. He felt it was probably for the best that he did it. Evidently John did not take it well. It's never fun telling someone they are out of a job even if you don't get along with them. That would have been my first time. Luckily, I was destined to get many more chances in the future.

As I look back, I think about how when I showed up at the Sacramento office none of the software staff knew me. Initially I worked solely with Bob and Diane. The staff had all been carrying a heavy workload and there was a large backlog of programming tasks. The programmers were working hard and putting in a lot of time trying to keep up. I was allowed to work independently in the background and before long the backlog of work was wiped out. Only Diane knew the extent of my contribution. Everyone had worked hard but I got the lion's share of the credit from upper management. In hindsight I can see how that wouldn't have looked too good to the other programmers. Lori was good friends with Diane and she likely got the scoop on me from her. Perhaps that's why she was the only programmer to embrace me. Still, John did not give me much of an alternative. I tried to be fair to him but I'm sure there were things I could have done better. Maybe the situation wasn't fair and if I'd been a more experienced manager I might have realized that at the time. John was a good programmer and was liked by his fellow workers and I really am sorry for the way things worked out.